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I have heard a LOT of people talking about reloading .22 lr ammo. Yes, the rimfire .22 we all know, love and can't find.
At first, I thought it was a gag, but lo and behold, there are instructions on Google and YouTube on how to reprime, etc.
Also, a LOT of moaning about the lack of .22 Mag. Could this be due to the mfgs using the Mag case to produce .17 HMR???? It seems that .22 Mag is MORE expensive than HMR, which is plentiful.....
ron
I think the lack of rimfire is the hoarders buying it all up as soon as it hits the shelves along with bloated promises from the manufacturers who claim they are making more now than ever.So where is it.The govt has placed huge ammo orders and that too may have an impact as well.Or someone or some entity is buying it all directly from the manufacturer and sitting on it to drive the price up.I have seen a brick of thunderbolts go for over 125.00 plus shipping.It is seriously ridiculous to buy at those prices.Now you will notice there is no gunpowder or bullets and it is getting worse,not better.
Everything is better in my area. Tons of powder (I don't use any reloader or varget so I don't pay attention to it, I know those are hit hard) but anything I need I can get usually. I know where there is 22mag at competitive prices, thousands of 17hmr, I buy 22lr federal match by the brick as I use it from a local shop for ok price (less than half what those thunderbolts sold for) and last week picked up a thousand large rifle match 210 primers for $34 otd. Only thing that's tough to get is some of the Hornady bullets right now, but that's fine I've substituted sierras and they're everywhere.
It's hoarders hoarding and stores not selling a bunch at a time to inflate their prices... They learned from oil companies...
You heard it right sir, a .22LR cases can be used as a jacket for a 223 bullet. A friend of mine gave me a couple hundred rounds to test so far it produced a 1" group (subsonic rounds)@ 50 yards
I yet to play around with a good COAL and powder load combo since my regular FMJ and Varget combo which normally produce a 1/2-1" group at 100 yards are yielding a 2-3" group at 100 yards using Varget powder and home made bullets. But, these bullets are good training ammo for CQB/3 gun type training as it produce 1" group at 50y. His overhead to produce these bullets are .08 cents each, it was a sucker punch to the gut when I heard that lol
OK, I've known about using .22 lr casings for making .22 cf bullets for years. What I'm talking about is RELOADING .22 LR ammo. I've been shooting for over 50 years. (gosh, I'm an OF), but can't imagine this would be worth the effort.
One thing about the .22 lr (factory) ammo is that the bullet is a 'wasp waist' design. How you could pull off a reasonable reload of this is beyond me. I currently reload 39 different ctgs, and have been doing so for many years....... WTF?
ron
If there is a member here who would know it'd be Hammer. I know in the sticky for "reloading bench plans" he makes the statement about 22LR being reloadable, but I don't know if he means the case turned to a .224 bullet or if he's repriming the rimfire case.
From what I know, or think I know, it that it is certainly doable but it's so freaking dangerous it just doesn't make sense. I do plenty of high risk stuff, but messing with making priming compound and a powder suitable for rimfire....just ain't one of em!
Yea, I don't understand either. .22 lr may be difficult to find right now, but it's not impossible. Maybe someday things will return to 'normal'...... I was one of the guys who used to buy a brick or 2 of .22 lr a couple of years ago......
I've been able to find enough to keep myself and friends supplied, BUT, I don't hoard either.
There is a 'gun show' in town this weekend, and while I don't want or need anything, I might go just to see the 'action'. ha ha
ron
There was a store near me selling repackaged Remington Golden Bullets (loose rounds in a small baggie, no label or documentation) at $6.99/50.
It's hard to imagine a world where reloading .22 is not beyond the point of diminishing returns, but given the artificial inflation of prices, maybe we won't have to imagine. I mean, some of the evil, evil calibers are returning to inflation-adjusted normal prices and are available, but .22 LR seems to be absurdly expensive when it can be found at all.